Maria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham, also known as “Ria,” was born in Chapman, Dickinson County, Kansas, on January 17, 1884. Ria grew up in Macomb, Illinois. Clark Gable, Andrew Denzil Langham, Alfred Thomas Lucas, and William Prentiss Jr. were among her husbands.
Maria married William Prentiss Jr on November 6, 1901, in Chicago at seventeen and divorced him four years later. She eventually met Clark Gable and married him for seven years. They dated for a year after meeting in November 1930 and married on July 19, 1931. Maria “Ria” Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham finally died in Houston, Texas, USA, on September 24, 1966.
To learn more about Maria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham, stay tuned because this article s going to tell us more about her life.
Personal Information of Maria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham
Name: Maria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham
Age: 82(age at death)
Date of birth: January 17, 1884
Place of birth: Chapman, Kansas, United States
Occupation: Actress and Socialite
Parents: George Alfred Franklin and Annie S(Pulford) Franklin
Grandparents: Unknown
Uncles: Unknown
The Early Life of Maria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham
Ria grew up in Macomb, Illinois. When she was seventeen years old, she wed William Prentiss, and four years later, they got divorced. Her mother had already passed away at this point, and her father was living in Texas, suffering from Tuberculosis.
Education background
Maria Franklin’s educational background is still unknown as it was never disclosed.
Career
Maria Franklin was a Hollywood actress and a socialite.
Marriage of Maria Franklin
Maria Franklin had to relocate to Texas to take care of his ailing father, and she met Alfred Thomas Lucas, a widower who was 22 years old and had a very prosperous brick business. George Anna, Maria’s daughter, was born shortly after their marriage, and Alfred Jr. was born six years later. Ria received a sizable inheritance from Alfred Sr. after he died in 1922, and she was regarded as one of Houston’s wealthiest residents.
The marriage was a complete mistake, according to her daughter George Anna, who recalled it when she divorced Denzil Langham in 1927. Ria and her children then relocated to New York to start a new life. George Anna took her mother to see Clark in the play Machinal when the family moved to New York after learning he was also living there.
Booth Franklin, Ria’s half-brother who was also an actor, offered to take them backstage so they could meet Clark after the performance. Ria had her first look at Clark then and thought he would make a good apprentice. When she laid eyes on Clark, Ria fell head over heels in love with him. She started to groom him, choosing fashionable clothing for him to wear and taught him social graces.
She attracted Clark’s interest, and he liked how stylish and sophisticated he thought she was. When he started making movies, she followed him to Hollywood and soon began to insist on marriage. Ria was mistaken if she believed that making Clark marry her would make him act more like a spouse. Clark Gable and Ria Franklin moved into a Beverly Hills mansion with bedrooms on opposite sides of the property.
When the evening was finished, Clark would frequently drop her off at the house and go on his own. However, they would often appear together at premieres and social gatherings, beaming broadly and holding hands. On March 8, 1939, Ria travelled to Las Vegas and was granted a divorce from Judge William E. Orr. Clark in a four-minute court session.
After a brief relationship with George Raft, she gradually withdrew from public life and retired to Houston. She followed Clark’s professional development, preserved copies of his newspaper articles, and frequently told her grandkids about her “days in Hollywood.”
Who is Maria Franklin’s mother?
Ria’s mother was called Annie S(Pulford) Franklin, but little is known about her.
